Pentagon military surplus gives departments an edge

Excess military material comes at virtually no cost to local law enforcement agencies

By Russ McQuaid
Fox 59

MORGAN COUNTY, Ind. — As the American military draws down its commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan, stateside ports, armories, depots and warehouses are packed with excess military material and vehicles, some of them none-the-worse from their tours in overseas war zones.

A lot of those weapons, uniforms, trucks and mine-resistant vehicles are patrolling the streets of central Indiana at virtually no cost to local law enforcement agencies.

“When I first started we really didn’t have the violence that we see today,” said Sgt. Dan Downing of the Morgan County Sheriff’s Department. “The weaponry is totally different now that it was in the beginning of my career, plus, you have a lot of people who are coming out of the military that have the ability and knowledge to build IEDs and to defeat law enforcement techniques.”